The Federal High Court today in Abuja declared the policy of deregulation to be unconstitutional, illegal, null and void, and ordered the government, from now on, to fix and publish regularly the prices of petroleum products.

Ruling in Case # FHC/ABJ/CS/591/2009: Bamidele Aturu v Minister of Petroleum Resources and the Attorney General of The Federation, Justice M. Bello ordered the defendants, their agents, privies, collaborators and whosoever and howsoever to desist from deregulating the downstream sector of the petroleum industry or from failing to fix the prices of petroleum products as mandatorily required by the Petroleum Act and the Price Control Act.

The also court issued the following orders:

Thanking the judge for the verdict, Mr. Aturu noted that the sound and logical treatment of the issue of locus standi raised by the defendants offered reassurance that the judiciary without doubt cannot be wholly dismissed in the struggle to build genuine democracy. “The judge has done his own bit,” he said in a statement. “It is now left for Nigerians to be alert to challenge any wicked increase in the prices of petroleum products. May God truly bless Nigeria.”